Secretary-General was denied to visit Ukraine — UN responds

The United Nations (UN) has responded to information that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has canceled a meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Ukraine. They say the visit will take place, but did not specify when.

This was reported by Suspilne.

What the UN says

Deputy Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq did not confirm that Guterres' visit to Ukraine was canceled by Kyiv because of the BRICS summit.

"We are trying to organize the visit at a mutually convenient time. Zelenskyy and Guterres discussed the visit during a meeting in September," Haq said.

As a reminder, on October 25, AFP and "Ukrainska Pravda", citing sources in the Office of the President of Ukraine, reported that Zelenskyy rejected the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Ukraine because of his visit to the BRICS summit in Russia.

It should be noted that Guterres accepted the invitation of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and attended the BRICS summit in the city of Kazan, which took place on October 22-24.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that Guterres rejected Ukraine's invitation to attend the Peace Summit, but went to Russia. The diplomatic department emphasized that the UN Secretary-General's actions "damage the reputation of the United Nations".